Jethro Tull founder and front man Ian Anderson will perform a 50th anniversary tour of the group's music at Bethlehem’s Musikfest festival, it was just announced.

Jethro Tull by Ian Anderson will play the greatest hits of the British progressive rock band best known for its triple-platinum 1971 album “Aqualung,” its No. 1 albums “Thick as a Brick” and “Passion Play” in 1972 and ’73, respectively, and hits such as “Living in the Past” and “Bungle in the Jungle.”

The concert will be on Musikfest’s main Steel Stage on Aug. 13.

Tickets, at $39-$59, will go on sale to ArtsQuest members at 10 a.m. Feb. 21 and to the public at 10 a.m. Feb. 24 at www.musikfest.org and 610-332-3378.

The announcement is the fifth of 10 headliners to be announced for the 34th edition of Musikfest, which will run Aug. 4-13.

Previously announced were classic rocker Santana on the festival’s opening night – a concert that already had effectively sold old; “Red Solo Cup” country music superstar Toby Keith on Aug. 10, country trip The Band Perry on Aug. 11 and a co-headlining show of country singers Lee Brice and Justin Moore on Aug.12.

Jethro Tull also headlined Musikfest in in 2008, and played solo shows at Sands Bethlehem Event Center in 2014 and Penn's Peak near Jim Thorpe in 2010.

The announcement comes even after Anderson in 2014 announced that Jethro Tull as a recording and touring entity was finished.

Jethro Tull formed in late 1967 and released its debut album, "This Was," in 1968.

In all, the band has released 21 studio albums and 25 live and compilation discs, 16 of which have gone gold or platinum. Its most recent disc was the 2015’s “Live at Carnegie Hall 1970.” It has not released an album of new material since “The Jethro Tull Christmas Album” in 2003, and not released a full disc of new songs since 1999’s “J-Tull Dot Com.”

The albums have collectively sold 15 million copies, with 16 of them going gold or platinum and seven of them hitting the Top 10 in the United States.

But Anderson, who will turn 70 during Musikfest, has released several more recent solos discs. They include “Thick as a Brick 2” in 2012 and “Homo Erraticus” and “Thick as a Brick: Live in Iceland,” both in 2014. He is scheduled to release “Jethro Tull: The String Quartets” in March.

In a 2014 interview before he played the Sands, Anderson told The Morning Call that Jethro Tull would no longer tour or record new music.

“I think we have to say, ‘What is Jethro Tull?’ Jethro Tull is 28 musician who, over a period of 46 years been member of the group,” Anderson said. “Jethro Tull has a vast repertoire of some 350 songs. It just doesn’t come to an end, it goes on.

“But if we’re talking about releasing albums simply under the name Jethro Tull or going out and doing tours simply under the name Jethro Tull, I rather felt that in my twilight years, I would like you to know my name, and a lot of people actually don’t know my name.

“So I just would like to think that I could use my own name rather than simply hide behind a masquerade of a band name.”

Asked specifically about a 50th anniversary tour, Anderson said, “Well, I couldn’t possibly gather together the most meaningful members of the Jethro Tull band – I couldn’t do that … And I don’t think I want to do that, because I really kind of believe in the greater equality of many more than just four other musicians. It would be really hard for me to try to present Jethro Tull as a performing act without picking and choosing of musicians.”